Shell scheme poisoning Mayo drinking water

by Shell to Sea Sat Apr 29, 2006 03:01

news report and photos here: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/75743

contaminated water stall at the Customs House, Dublin

by Shell to Sea Fri Apr 28, 2006 19:09

Shell refinery blamed for 'aluminium water pollution'
28/04/2006 - 15:58:31

The local water supply in North Mayo is being polluted by aluminium run-offs from a Shell gas refinery, it was claimed today.

Around 100,000 tonnes of peat had been removed to create a site for the Corrib gas field in Bellanaboy and activists claimed it has led to the exposure of aluminium deposits.

'Shell to Sea' spokesman John Monaghan said the aluminium was running into the local river and on to Carrowmore Lake, which is the main source of water for the Erris region.

“Shell are supposed to manage the surface water off the construction site but they haven’t done that. So since last October you have this very high aluminium content water running off the site into the Bellanaboy River and into Carrowmore Lake,” he said.

Due to long-running problems with phosphate pollution from local agriculture, most locals have not drunk the tap water from the local supply for many years.

Mr Monaghan said the aluminium discharges had made the problem even worse.

“Since Christmas, people had noticed something funny and had stopped drinking it. They suffered itching in the shower and saw a blue colour in the water in their baths.

“We don’t know if it’s directly associated with the aluminium but people are not drinking this water,” he said.

At a 'Shell to Sea' demonstration outside the Customs House in Dublin, protesters offered cups of muddy-coloured water taken from pools near the proposed refinery, Carrowmore Lake and the local water supply.

There were no takers for the yellow-coloured water.

Mayo County Council is monitoring the lake on a daily basis. It says treated drinking water is safe for human consumption and that there are no excess levels of aluminium in it.

Mr Monaghan said the council was failing to acknowledge the evidence from its own monitoring results such as on February 1 when the level of aluminium in the water was 251micrograms per litre, far in excess of the maximum level of 200.

“When the evidence of their own figures says the opposite, we cannot understand how they maintain their stance,” he said.

The construction of the gas refinery has been suspended since last year along with all of the Corrib gas field project.

Shell agreed to suspend the work and withdraw an injunction against five protesters from the local area, known as the Rossport Five, who have spent 94 days in jail.

A report from an independent mediator Peter Cassells is expected shortly but the Rossport Five are not taking part in the process.

http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=180990160&p...9x866

by Ciarán Ó Brolcháin Fri Apr 28, 2006 18:22

Has TV3 or TG4 given the issue any coverage?

by Shipsea Fri Apr 28, 2006 13:59

The ignorance of shell supporters never ceases to amaze. It must have been reported a hundred times in a hundred different places by now that, no, there is no comparable pipeline anywhere in the country. This pipe would be uniquely dangerous. It would carry untreated, high pressure gas. Explosions on pipelines elsewhere in the world show that, even with far less volatile gas and lower pressures, the explosions have incinerators groups of people living much further away from them than some of the people in Mayo would be.

But this thread is about the ancialliary subject of contaminated drinking water, so lets not be diverted any longer.

by this_is_cock Fri Apr 28, 2006 13:27

there is already a gas pipeline running the breath of the country. What populist nonsense.